Fool's Gold (The Wandering Engineer)

by Hechtl, Chris

  Knowing she'd have enough on her plate with those two jobs she'd nominated one of her protégés for the G-5 Bu-pers slot. Decius was an interesting choice. A young centilian and the leader of his surviving clan, as a teenager he had managed to get forty of his people and thirteen remaining elves onto a decrepit old sub light shuttle and to Anvil twenty years ago when their colony's last remaining fusion reactor had shut down.

  He had kept his people out of trouble, gainfully employed and even cleaned up their section of Anvil. The sector had been a small bright spot on the station, it had little crime, and had functioning utilities. All within the heart of the highest crime area of the station. He'd even seen to it that any children in their area were sent to Logan's schools for a proper education.

  When the power crisis had loomed he had worked in the shadows, directing his people and those allied with him to help the Admiral and others. He'd taken over the secretary slot at the college within weeks of its founding but Matilda saw that he'd been severely underutilized and had taken him under her wing.

  He had taken several military courses, and even acted as a TA in a few of them. Irons had used him briefly in an introductory to officer studies before he'd recognized the young man's talent and frocked him to the G-5 slot as a lieutenant commander. He'd already made a mark on the manning tables. Nearly half of his extended clan, some five hundred people of nine species had followed in his footsteps over night. Many of the kids were signing up for hard science and math courses and putting themselves on the path to a naval career. It was a little scary. He'd have to remember to keep an eye on them in the future.

  The G-4 slot was manned by commander Logan. That made him the oldest and highest ranking organic officer in the fleet. Other than the Admiral of course. Irons sat back with a long exhale trying to relax.

  “Penny for your thoughts Admiral?” Firefly asked.

  Irons placed his hands behind his neck and stretched a bit. “Just thinking about what to do. I'd like to bump Vargess up to a captaincy but he's still feeling his way around.”

  “He's already gotten the courtesy bump when he takes command of Fuentes though,” Firefly reported. “You can't bump him to junior captain's rank without more time in grade. It won't fly.”

  “And when he does take over Fuentes full time we'll have a hole in ops,” Irons grumbled.

  “True,” Firefly nodded. “But the system can handle most of the day to day stuff. That's called delegation.”

  “You think he can handle a captain's billet as well as ops full time?” Irons asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Why not? I honestly don't see who else we can put in the posting. And if you yank field command from him he'd be devastated. From the looks of his record past and present he's a natural field officer. Someone who leads from the front and is not afraid of getting his hands dirty.”

  “But hates shuffling paperwork,” Irons said smiling.

  “I seem to recall a certain flag officer with the same problem,” Firefly said dryly. Irons chuckled.

  “All I can say is we can give it a shot and see how he handles it. The double posting will automatically push him up the ladder of advancement,” Firefly said. “Hopefully not before he is ready mentally.”

  “Which is my other point. When I was declared dead I was frocked to Fleet admiral. Shouldn't we do the same with him?”

  “You did that already sir. From first lieutenant to lieutenant commander. Two jumps in less then a year is not warranted. Are you serious about making him an admiral?” Firefly asked, looking surprised. Irons shook his head.

  “No I mean a bump to junior captain.”

  “Ah,” Firefly shrugged. “Your call Admiral. I don't see a lot of regulations against it since we are in an emergency situation, but then again, we're in uncharted waters. I would suggest giving him time to adjust to the situation. That way you also do not appear to be playing favorites by jumping him over some of the other senior officers.”

  “Agreed,” Irons nodded. He snorted.

  “What?”

  “Just thinking of the old sailor's saw. 'A tall ship and a star to sail her by.'”

  “Aye sir. And 'Old soldiers don't die, they just fade away.'”

  “You would bring that one up,” Irons said shaking his head.

  “Sorry. How about... 'Red sky at night sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor take warning,'” Firefly responded.

  Irons glared at the AI. “Completely out of context.” He shook his head.

  “Well, I could get into Kipling,” Firefly responded.

  “Thanks but no thanks,” Irons chuckled.

  The Major chuckled softly as he watched the students jogging by in sweats. A few of the brave or just suicidal ones looked at him darkly. Those that could barely hold on were panting. All of them were covered in sweat. All in all, good training. They were almost half way through the first training period.

  “Come on people! The more you sweat the less you bleed. Get your ass movin'!” A DI snarled, waving his hands. A boy fell to the ground retching. The DI went over and knelt, cajoling then harassing the kid to get back up.

  “That's mean,” Matilda said, sniffing. They watched as the boy got up, bent over, hands on his knees. Eventually he started moving off.

  “No, it's training commander,” the Major replied. He turned to her. “They have to keep moving. There are no pause buttons in a war.”

  “Oh.”

  “They have to know they can keep going, keep fighting even when they are hurt, tired and scared out of their minds.”

  “Oh,” Matilda grimaced. “But the physical effort? Why? Don't the nanites give them super muscles and bones?”

  “Not exactly. They don't have them yet. Not fully. We're keeping the full package until later so they wont become dependent on it. We want them to know they can do it without help before they get it,” he explained. He glanced at the kid. “Besides, if he'd stayed like that for long that kid would have cramped up,” Doc said giving a rueful glance to the Major. He nodded.

  “And the super stuff?” Matilda asked. “They seem more fit than ever.”

  Thornby rolled her eyes then shook her head and smiled. “The nanites clean up the body. Suck out the plaque from the arteries, destroy any tumors, clean up any health imbalances, and turn back the cell clock. Then the second wave burns away the excess fat and builds muscle. But you have to build muscle tone and keep building it to keep it. If you slack off you lose it.”

  “Ah,” Matilda nodded.

  “Remember those pills I gave you a couple months ago?” Thornby asked smiling.

  “I was wondering why none of my clothes fit anymore,” Matilda grumped. Thornby chuckled.

  “Bingo. But if you sit behind a desk too long...”

  “I'll be right back to my usual plump self in next to no time?” Matilda asked, smiling. “Noted. I'll see if I can find time to for some racquet ball. Running in circles isn't my... thing,” she darted a dark look at the Major.

  “To each his or her own ma'am,” He said nodding.

  Sergio studied the holo. The fighter was a classic design, complete with angled wings. She had four drive pods on her stern, two top, two on her keel. The front of each engine pod had a ram scoop. She looked more at home in an atmosphere than in space though. He turned it this way and that. “It looks nice. But different than the fighter we had,” he turned to Logan.

  “That's because it's a Cobra class. Also known as a Star Cobra. She's a workhorse, one of two we're considering. The other is...”

  He changed the feed to another fighter holo. This one had the pilot's command pod in the middle of the ship instead of forward like in the Cobra. It was flat and angled, with sharp bends instead of the elegant curves of the Cobra. It sported two oversized engines on her rear with small ram scoops embedded in her wing root.

  “Seems under powered compared to the Cobra,” Sergio said. He studied the design then pulled up her specs. His hand flicked through the controls and he pul
led up the Cobra and compared them. Clearly the Cutlass was slower, less maneuverable and under gunned. It did have the advantage of not needing a pilot with full implants though.

  “That is a problem. At least it's better than what Firefly wants,” Logan sighed. He pulled up another design.

  This one looked like a mechanized insect. It had a single drive pod with oversized bell thruster. Two sets of articulating wings were on its flanks. A weapons turret was under the chin. The entire thing looked like a security drone.

  “Mean and nasty. The Hornet. A beast to fly, or so I heard. But she's out of our league anyway, she requires antimatter. A lot of it.”

  “Okay so that's out,” Sergio smiled.

  “Right so we're back to the others,” he shook his head then pulled up a list. “We've got the plans for four other fighters. I'd like to think we're past the Raven and the Raptor though.” He shook his head. “I'd rather see an E class but they are way out of our league.”

  Four images of fighters flashed up and then spread out on the table. These were sharp angled things, with two pods in place of wings. Spikes stuck out here and there. “Nasty things. They've got battle cruiser class weapons on some of them,” Logan said. “Bug again, MAM reactors. So we're back to these.” He flicked a control and the holo field faded out and switched back to the four contenders.

  Sergio twitched as he saw the Raptor. “We had one of those!” he said smiling.

  “She's practically an antique. Single spinal mount weapon, three drive pods, little more than an emergency fighter.”

  “Yeah, but she's a dedicated space fighter right?” Sergio asked intent.

  “Yes. That she is. But she's woefully under gunned and under powered compared to the others. She's almost as fast as the Cobra though. Only slightly faster than the Cutlass. More maneuverable though I'll give her that.”

  “I'll take her,” Sergio grinned.

  “You sure?” Logan asked. “Even with the latest version she's still not up to handling a Cobra on a good day you know. Why don't you load her specs up in a sim or two and give it a shot before you make a hard decision.”

  “Um...” Sergio blinked. “Okay if we've been flying something else, what was it?”

  “Cobra's of course,” Logan smiled. “Though we specced a few of your people out on Cutlass's to make things easier.”

  “Oh,” Sergio sat back. “Huh. I saw the fighters in the sims but...”

  “But you didn't pay attention to the names?”

  “No, not really, just the ways to beat them,” he shook his head. “I remember a couple, Starhawk, and Viper. Star Falcon too,” he shrugged. “But that's from the video's I watched as a kid.”

  “Well, we can look into both. Check out the sim though.”

  “Sure, as soon as I can,” he grimaced. The sim complex was getting popular. The college was sending over shuttle and work pod applicants on a daily basis. Some of the sim pods were being used to control real space bots in the seemingly frantic rebuild and repair work going on outside the station.

  “Um...” Logan looked up. “There was a cancellation. One pod is open for the next... hour and a half. Better get moving. I just put in a reservation.” Sergio grinned.

  “Thanks commander. I'll catch up with you soon.” He stood at attention then rushed out.

  The class was a little restless. He nodded to ensign Brown, his assistant. He had instituted teacher assistants for some of the classes to aide those like himself that had busy schedules and couldn't always be relied upon to be on time or even there from time to time. Since he was leaving for that conference in the evening he would need the young TA to handle things again. "Settle down folks," Brown said softly. The room quieted. Most of the students were young, ages ranging from a genius twelve year old to a single forty year old. Most fell in the eighteen to twenty-something bracket. He surveyed the class.

  "All right ladies and gentlemen, welcome to intro to officer studies 101. I'm your host and occasional guest lecturer Admiral Irons," he looked around. The room had settled. "This is a short three week course to orient you in a career with the military. We're going to give you a brief overview of each course and some details." He looked around the room once more. "Are there any questions before we begin?"

  The twelve year old raised his hand. "Yes? And you are?" he asked politely. The young man stood.

  "Daniel sir. Daniel Jackson. I'm curious about the ships and different classes. What do they mean and what roll do they play in the navy?" he cocked his head. Irons grimaced. "I was wondering because I was wondering what our ships would be doing in the future to meet those needs," Daniel amended then sat down abruptly.

  The Admiral paused to gather his thoughts, letting the class murmur for a moment. "All right, The answer is in your book, chapter three. But to give you an overview." He turned and opened his teacher's syllabus and then keyed the ships diagram. Beside him a holo of each ship class from hunter killer up to planetoid was displayed in relative scale.

  "All right starting with warships, at the very bottom with the smallest crew and ability we have the hunter killers and gunships. They are small craft, inner system or parasite ships designed to patrol a system or to run down enemy ships. Some are designed as scouts or as modular defense platforms." The caret around the hunter killers and gunships moved up to the next largest.

  "Next we have the frigates and corvettes. These ships have a class one or two hyper drive. They serve in a similar function with more staying power and of course the ability of transiting between star systems." The caret moved up again. He looked at it then nodded.

  "Next we have the destroyers. There are different platforms for different missions, and even general purpose ones. Destroyers, or tin cans as they are called are one of the workhorses of the fleet. We have two, the Damocles and the Andrea Fuentes. Fuentes is about to recommission." He smiled as the class murmured.

  "Next we have cruisers. Cruisers are the largest ship to act as a standalone ship during missions. They can range from anti-piracy patrol, diplomatic escorts, convoy escorts, survey work, or more complex tasks that we won’t get into now." He turned and smiled. “Both tin cans and cruisers have specialty designs used in fleets as well.”

  "That covers the basics of ships we call screening elements. In a fleet they are used to screen the battle line, the larger capital ships, providing them with additional eyes, platform redundancy, and layers of point defense." Several of the students looked confused. "Don't worry, you'll understand in time. Now, the capital ships are battle cruisers, carriers, battleships, dreadnoughts, super dreadnoughts, monitors, and battle planetoids."

  He turned. "Each has a separate function in a fleet. Battle cruisers and carriers are the only capital ships that operate outside a fleet. The other ships are usually the core of a fleet." The holo changed to a view of the Resolution class.

  "As most of you know we have one Resolution class light cruiser ship, the Firefly, she is currently the flagship of the defense force defending this system and this sector." Someone laughed. He turned. "Do you have a problem?"

  "Uh no sir," the young man gulped. He nodded.

  "Right. Sector. I'm not kidding. We're rebuilding the fleet folks. Fix that in your heads firmly from now on. Fuentes, Damocles, Sun-Yat, Firefly and the others are our core ships. Currently they are training and gathering materials to repair each other and to rebuild other ships like the battleship I believe most of you know about." The class began to murmur. He held up his hands. "Okay, lets settle down."

  "So what else are they doing?" a young woman asked.

  "You're... Sara correct?" She nodded. "Please stand and wait to be called before shooting off a question from now on." She blushed. "But to answer your question, The fleet is also transporting delegates, medical and other supplies, and medical and other personnel. We do search and rescue ops, training, and gather raw materials for our expansion projects. We've also been tasked to use ship grasers to cut caverns for the Pyrax expansion program cur
rently underway."

  They looked at each other in surprise. "Uh, that's a lot for a couple ships isn't it?" someone asked.

  "And that's just the beginning. We also have to keep watch on each of the jump points, keep a look out for stray munitions, traps, pirates, and smugglers, while also salvaging more ships to repair recycle, or scrap." He sat on the edge of the desk then crossed his arms. "Also we get to protect and train the merchants that are on Destiny, the factory ship Hephaestus thirty three, the ships currently under construction in the growing yard and the other freighters." He sighed and paused, head down in thought.

  "Yeah, it's a lot," he shook his head after a moment. He'd been surprised when he'd caught Logan's memo about laying the frames for the Prometheus group. Surprised and pleased. Logan was moving full speed on all fronts.

  "Ever get the feeling you bit off more than you can chew Admiral?" a heckler in the back asked. He smiled. "Yeah, a lot," he shrugged. "But I'm an engineer, We'll fix it."

  Someone started to clap. After a moment the rest of the class joined in. He tried to shush them but they stood. The ensign was clapping as well, smiling. He smiled feeling his ears burn in embarrassment. "Hell," he muttered then bowed politely.

  Chapter 31

  Shelby entered the officer's wardroom and smiled at the sight before her. The newly minted ensign Laugherty was trying not to ogle at his nominal boss, first lieutenant Thorn. Thorn was on top of a table, squatting and sipping at a drink with a straw. Occasionally one eye or the other would roll, taking in the room around her. It was an unnerving sight to some despite years of exposure to aliens.

  "Problem ensign?" she asked releasing the straw. Her tail swished.

  "Ah, no ma'am," the ensign shook his head. "Ah that is..."

  "Spit it out son, I've probably heard it all before," Thorn looked down at her three fingers.